Harry Reid Reads Health Care Bill, Decides He Doesn't Like It Any More

by Benjamin Domenech on 8:26 pm August 9, 2010

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John Graham of the Pacific Research Institute details a few fun facts in this video about HealthCare.gov, but the one that sticks out is this, a letter from Majority Leader Harry Reid to HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius sent on July 21st. The letter seems to indicate that Reid has finally read the health care bill, and after discovering it hurts Nevada hospitals more than it helps them, is complaining to the administration. You can read the full Reid letter here:

In a July 21 letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Service Kathleen Sebelius, the Senate Majority Leader complains that ObamaCare’s cuts to Medicare will “result in a net reduction in payment to Nevada’s hospitals when they are unable to absorb such a cut.” Furthermore, he questions the method used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to calculate the payments to hospitals, and is “very concerned about potential effects on beneficiary access if this regulation is finalized without adjustment.”

But that’s the entire point of the measure you worked so hard to pass, Sen. Reid! Roughly half of the estimated cost of Obamacare is, according to the Congressional Budget Office, paid for by making approximately $455 billion in cutbacks to payments to Medicare providers — read, hospitals and doctors. That’s what it means to control for cost through government mandates. Did you miss a meeting?

Incidents like this illustrate why this ludicrous bill, supported by well-intentioned fools whose inability to understand economics is only matched by their inability to understand human nature, is politically unsustainable. Already politicians like Reid are working to game the system, to exempt their states from the cutbacks made necessary by their own policy decisions, as they do with any government-run industry. Get ready — there’s no end in sight.Follow Ben Domenech on Twitter.